Poor free throw shooting dooms Aycock's boys

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 20, 2013 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock head coach Tod Morgan and Southern Wayne head coach Dwight Smith can each sympathize with North Carolina head coach Roy Williams these days.

Neither the Golden Falcons nor Saints, just like the Tar Heels, can make a free throw. The Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference rivals combined to shoot 20 of 47 from the charity striple during Southern Wayne's 43-40 victory on Thursday evening.

The missed scoring chances proved critical, especially for Aycock, which shot a miserable 3 for 11 from the free throw line in the final eight minutes.

"Free throw shooting ... something that we have to continue to work on," Morgan said. "It's not that we don't shoot them every day, but it's different I guess when you're in a game situation. We've got some young guys out there who are still learning to be confident in those situations."

The Golden Falcons (5-7 overall, 0-2 ECC) held an eight-point lead throughout the second half until the Saints turned up the pressure in their 2-1-2 halfcourt trap.

Aycock's advantage slowly dwindled and Southern Wayne took its first lead, 37-36, on Tarvis Bradshaw's basket around the 3-minute mark. The Saints moved in front 40-38 on Zxavier Pearsall's bucket and hung on from there in the final 82 seconds of regulation.

Drake Shaw's free throw with 7.8 seconds left kept the Saints in front, 43-40. Michael Williams' desperation NBA-range 3-pointer clanged off the back of the rim as time expired.

"It's always like this when we come here," said Smith, whose team coerced CBA into 23 turnovers. "We relied on our defense that created our offense. We started getting more aggressive, denying some of the passes."

Williams paced the Golden Falcons with a double-double -- game-high 20 points and game-high 22 rebounds. Neil Clark chipped in nine points.

Bradshaw emerged the Saints' top scorer with 12 points. Jaylen Roberts supplied 10 points, four rebounds and six blocked shots before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.